Over My Head
by Assemble-the-Avengers
Summary: <html><head></head>It had been exactly three ree months since that poor man had moved in next door. She could hear him late at night, talking to himself, working on his projects; thin walls an all. She could hear the poor man mumbling a girl's name, Jemma maybe, every night, every day every hour. And her heart broke for this poor man.</html>


It had been exactly three months.

Three months since that poor man had moved in next door.

She could hear him late at night, talking to himself, working on his projects; thin walls an all.

No one had been to visit him save for a rather pretty looking brunette who had introduced herself as Skye when running into Aubrey in the hall.

The girl had never returned.

Aubrey could hear the poor man mumbling a girl's name, Jemma maybe, every night, every day every hour. Her heart broke for this poor man.

And it took exactly three months for Aubrey to build up the courage to go and check on this man. That, and a night of his screaming that girl's name at the top of his lungs. That's what prompted her to walk the few feet to his door the next morning and knock despite it being exceedingly early for a Saturday morning. But the man was awake. She could hear him talking.

And as she heard him ask a nonexistent person who it was, Aubrey suddenly questioned her sanity. This man was unwell at the very least, if not completely insane in the most literal sense and here she was, knocking on his-

"See, I _told _you, Jemma. They don't visit anymore." He whispered, turning his head as if he were addressing a living breathing person behind him. There was no one there.

"Uh, hi." Aubrey stammered, staring at him rather rudely. He was painfully attractive and young looking but at the same time he looked so old and unkempt and so pained like he had been through so much more then he could ever speak of. He had golden brown hair, long and curly falling down in front of red and purple rimmed blue eyes. Blonde scruff had crept up his cheeks and his forehead was furrowed in concentration.

"Hello," he said cautiously, hand reaching across his chest to rest on his own shoulder. "It's alright Jemma. She looks harmless enough, yeah?" he murmured. Aubrey swallowed thickly and resisted the urge to take a step back. What was she even doing here? "She's probably just…" he trailed off and squeezed his eyes shut, snapping his fingers and groaning in frustration. Aubrey watched him in concerned fascination. "Yes!" he exclaimed, smiling widely over his shoulder again. "Thank you."

"Hi," Aubrey said shyly. "I live next door. My name is Aubrey." She stuck her hand out to him and watched sadly as the man flinched only to stop and nod at that same imaginary person before holding his hand out to Aubrey who smiled warmly at him and took his hand gently in hers, shaking softly.

"Fitz." He responded, still holding her hand seconds after the handshake stopped. "Or, Leo Fitz." He corrected, dropping Aubrey's hand hesitantly.

"Hello Fitz." She smiled, scanning over the living room behind him. There were wires and circuit boards and boxes and tools covering every surface inside the apartment. Everything in sight had the same bird logo printed on it.

"Oh," he chuckled, a blush creeping up his neck. "Yeah, that." His accent was adorable and added to the youthfulness that he radiated. "Those are all of my…" he trailed off again and his expression screwed up into something resembling a cross between frustration, anger and concentration. "Inventions! Yes, thank you Simmons." He sighed, then returned his attention to the girl in the doorway. "My inventions. I've got to finish the cloaking program for the plane. Skye promised she'd come back for me when I finished it. I can't go home until I finish it. I have to prove to them I can _do _it!" his accent was tainted by the tone of desperation and his fists were pressed to his forehead, leaving Aubrey standing there, watching him helplessly.

"Hey, hey, Leo, right?" Aubrey called, taking another step towards him for _god _knows what reason. "Hey," she hummed calmly, reaching forward to put her hand on his upper arms.

"SHIELD won't take me _back _until I fix it." He muttered. Shield? As in…the anti crime organization that no longer _existed? _

"Leo, deep breath, alright? It's okay. You'll figure it out." Aubrey murmured. She was completely winging it. She didn't know what he was saying, what she was saying, she didn't even know if he was talking to her or this Jemma girl. "Why don't you show me what you've got so far? Maybe I can help?" she offered weakly. Fitz looked up sharply and stared at Aubrey.

"What do you know about reflective masking programming?" he asked excitedly and Aubrey had to refrain from laughing at his terrifying and endearing three-sixty change. "Because I've been working on…" he turned sharply and waved Aubrey inside his apartment she followed and closed his door quietly behind her, weaving around the mechanical mess on the floor. "Trying to improve the camo capacity of course but also the panel individuality because you can see the reflective panels if you're close enough and it's useless at that point. So I've been trying to…" again with the snapping and crushing look of confusion.

"Improve it?" Aubrey offered up quietly.

"Yes!" he smiled widely over his shoulder again before his brow furrowed and he turned to face Aubrey again. "Thank you…" he said slowly. Aubrey nodded, smiling softly.

"Have you tried taking imaging from the sky above the plane and reflecting it from the bottom panels instead of using the mirror idea." She suggested softly. Fitz nodded and pressed his palms to his eyes. "Well why don't you try taking a break? Work on a different project maybe. That's what I do when I'm stuck."

"I can't give up!" he argued, pounding his fists into the desk, making the girl across from him jump.

"I'm not saying give up." She amended. "Just take a break." She shrugged. "What's this?" Aubrey lifted an odd looking gun off the table and turned it in her hands.

"I built it some time ago. We both did, really." He pointed his thumb behind him and Aubrey sighed shakily. "Called a Night Night gun." He explained. "I fixed it up. Made it an ounce lighter. That makes quite the difference you know." He nodded, fixing the gun with his full attention. Aubrey nodded and smiled, trying to keep the sympathy out of it.

"Well Leo, thank you for showing me some of this stuff." She smiled, pushing away from the table. "Maybe I could come by tomorrow morning as well? Maybe have a look at some more of your gadgets." She suggested, taking a few steps back towards the door. Leo jumped up and followed her. Fitz only nodded, opening the door for her. Aubrey nodded and turned to take the few steps back to her apartment, waving at the man before his door closed.

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